My daughter is 5 years old and is scheduled to have a peanut challenge done at Dr. Ham Pong's office September 25th.
I will give you a bit of history. Diagnosed at 18 months, spt 7mm, Rast 2.75, only peanut she ever came into contact with was one she picked up off of a floor when visiting someone. This was around 18 months. No reaction. No reaction since, couple of times she had hives but nothing that we could ever pin down to accidental peanut contact.

2007, spt 6mm. Rast tested 2 weeks ago and the result was .74.

Dr. Ham Pong feels that she does not have an allergy and thus the testing.

My husband and I have discussed the challenge with Kirsten and what to expect. We told her she could have a reaction and the doctor might have to use the epipen.

My question to everyone is do you think she can fully comprehend what is about to happen? As a parent, how do you tell yourself that this is the right thing to do, if anyone has gone through this before, how does one prepare themselves for this?

I don't have any advice, but wanted to wish you luck. I truly hope your DD isn't truly peanut allergic.

Our allergist won't consider doing a peanut challenge until age 8, which I'm finding seems to be older than the norm. His concern is that a younger child may not be able to clearly articulate a subtle rxn.

Good luck!
I don't have any experience with a challenge personally. I hope it goes well for you.

A boy in my dd's class seems to have a similar situatino though. He was diagnosed around age 2 ( he had minor hives from something, tests showed positive to peanut & egg) I'm not sure what the results were from his spt or blood tests, but he did go for a challenge at age 5 and he passed (he said the pb was much better then the egg! lol)

I think it depends on your child. Our allergist brought up doing a peanut challenge to us, but we choose not to do it this year. My dd is still only 4 and she's very picky. Plus the numbers were higher then what I was comfortable with (not that I know much about numbers) but I'd rather seem them go down after 2 tests instead of just looking at the one test. My DD also had a very bad reaction to peanut when she was 2, so the results aren't just based on a test. Anyways - all this to say that our allergist agreed and said 6 was a better age.

I am to go to our allergist Dr. Lee in Kanata next week, I will ask about it as I am curious. Although I have to say he has never given me a measurement of test area or done a blood test. My son had a reaction at age 2 1/2 (he is now 5) when first introduced to pb .. tongue lip facial swelling, hives, I was with him gave a LARGE does of benedryl and then spent the rest of the day at CHEO!
Last year all Dr. Lee said was that his allergy test showed a more severe reaction. This year I will ask about measurement and other testing. I am glad to get other information from this site.
Good luck at your appt.

I had a peanut challenge test six years ago. After doing an IgE blood test my allergist felt that the numbers were so low that it warranted a challenge. I had had one reaction in my life to peanuts which was at 3 years old and I was 14 at the time of the challenge.
Unfortunately I did not pass the test and they had to administer epinephrine. The one advantage to being under the careful watch of doctors is that they can adminsiter it through a regular needle in the arm instead of the epi-pen which is more painful because it is spring loaded. Within 60 seconds my symptoms were completely gone.
I do find it odd how allergy testing goes on at such a young age now but it seems like your allergist is thinking that since she did not ever really have a reaction that was directly linked to peanuts, there is a possibility that she is not allergic.
Honestly, it will be ok. When you do a challenge you are watched by a whole team of doctors and nurses and are never left alone.
My advice would be to-in simple terms- tell your daughter that she will be doing a test where she has to eat some things and for her to make sure that if anything makes her feel sick or funny (sometimes as a child, itchy throat, ears or other odd sensations are hard to describe with a young child's vocabulary) for her to make sure and tell you or the doctors. That way, if she is having a reaction it can be monitored from the get-go instead of if it progresses.
Good luck! I hope her results turn out well.

_________________Associate Editor at Allergic Living.
Allergies to all nuts and legumes except soy and green beans.

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